The present invention relates to a fire alarm system used with devices for informing an outbreak of a fire to operators of the devices.
Conventional fire alarm systems use an alarm or siren which is activated by a controller in response to a signal detected by a smoke detector or heat sensor. Further, there may be a manual activation switch which a person presses to activate the alarm. However, if persons in the enclosed environment where the alarm is activated cannot hear the alarm due to other sounds, then the emergency situation will not be recognized and the persons will not realize that they should vacate the enclosed environment.
Recently "karaoke rooms" have become popular. A karaoke room is a soundproof room equipped with a karaoke terminal (a terminal for generating musical accompaniment, i.e., the instrumental part of a song without the voice track, allowing persons to sing the vocal track themselves, an example of which is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,252,775). Many karaoke rooms may be provided on a single floor of a building. If a fire broke out in one of the karaoke rooms, and an alarm was sounded, the soundproof nature of the karaoke rooms would make it difficult for occupants of the other karaoke rooms to hear the alarm.
Other enclosed environments such as video arcades have also become popular. In video arcades, some of the video games use an interactive helmet or headset which provides audio information to the person when he is playing the video game. If a fire broke out while the person was playing the video game, the person would most likely not hear the alarm. Further, in the crowded environment, if the person heard the alarm, he might not be able to locate the nearest exit because of the crowd.